


While it's Still Spring

by rapunzelrider



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/M, Weddings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-23 20:17:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13197771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rapunzelrider/pseuds/rapunzelrider
Summary: Talking about weddings in the middle of a war is frivolous, it’s asinine, it’s... inevitable when Sakura and Nishiki can't keep their minds on anything else.





	While it's Still Spring

“You’ll have to be faster than that,” Nishiki whipped around and with a lightning swipe of his claws, two enemy soldiers crumpled. He felt a twinge of guilt for the felled men but knew he couldn’t linger. Kamui had sent him to frontline and he knew there was no time for compassion. Scarlet’s resistance forces had given intel that Nohr would be attempting to send in Wyverns to take out Takumi’s archers if they were discovered, so his distraction at the barracks of the fort was crucial. Nishiki had been training for this. He’d been running afternoon drills religiously with Kamui for weeks and spent twilight hours communing with the spirits in the nearby forests to improve his connection to his Kitsune powers. Given how deeply this had cut into his evening hair care routines and afternoon napping under trees with Sakura, Nishiki considered his devotion to the army a great gift to the Hoshidian royal family and fully expected lavish praise during their victory celebrations. Even ruminating on this to himself, Nishiki had to admit, if Sakura could just come through this battle unscathed, he’d consider that thanks enough.

Sakura had volunteered to provide supportive cover to Takumi’s units and Nishiki couldn’t shake the feeling that splitting up with her was a huge mistake. He didn’t dare contradict the future king of Hoshido nor Kamui given the resistance members who had sacrificed their lives to give Hoshido this opening in Nohr’s defenses. He also wouldn’t dare argue with her. Her face had been so set, her usually demure voice so strong and sure. She’d gripped her small golden festal so hard her knuckles had gone white. They’d both been training hard, he knew. Strategically, he knew there was merit in their plan - the strongest long-range units take the unprotected courtyard in the back with Sakura there to buff their small number with her magic and her own prowess with a bow. Thinking about her walking in with so little room for error, with so little cover, his heart pounded an anxious tattoo that threatened to put him off course.

A gentle, reptilian flap of wings rustled behind Nishiki forcing his fur to stand on end. “Nishiki! How’s it looking?” He let out a quick sigh. Kamui had donned her draconic form to join his strike. “They don’t stand a chance against me, Commander!”  
  
“That’s what I thought! Keep it up, Fox Prince.” Even in this intimidating form, Nishiki could hear the smile in her voice. Another rustling of wings forced both soldiers to turn behind them.  
  
“Commander!” Silas riding Princess Hinoka’s Pegasus hovered over the wall Nishiki and Kamui were guarding. “Takumi’s forces have been discovered. Hinoka stayed back to fight them herself but she wanted me to reach you. I think they’ll be alright, but if we can send Scarlet or Tsubaki in from your frontline it might be for the be-“  
  
“Send me. Silas, can you get back me back there on this Pegasus? Would it be faster if I ran?” He’d asked a question but Nishiki couldn’t hear anything but his own heart beating. Thump thump thump thump thump. He willed it to quiet and turned to the Commander. She’d transformed back into a woman and was giving him a pitying look. “Don’t make me beg, Commander, it’s so unbecoming.”  
  
She turned to Silas. “Can you fight here with me? Nishiki was studying the plans with the rest of us; he should be able to make it on his own with that Kitsune speed. Don’t take the time to thank me. Just get there and keep her safe.”

\---

Sakura felt a sting in her arm but didn’t look down. She had to keep focus on her spell. She felt the white light well up from the depths of her mind. She let that energy flow from to the tips of her toes and through the staff in her fingers then sent it to spread through the courtyard around her, her brother, her sister, and her countrymen. She channeled the light into reality as sparkling, ethereal blossoms that fell without sound onto the shoulders of her allies. For a moment, the twanging of bowstrings ceased and stillness fell around her. “Protect them,” she whispered.

The stillness lifted but the sparkling blossoms remained and Sakura knew she had to run. An archer patrolling the courtyard wall had discovered Takumi, called out for reinforcements, and they had all been sent scrambling into cover. She’d taken a risk coming out from behind a fountain but Sakura had needed the clear sightline to get her protective spell to reach all members of Takumi’s team. Someone had got off a clean shot into her left arm while she’d been casting. Sakura knew it hurt but she wondered if maybe it should have hurt more. It was an annoyance to her spell casting rather than anything that could stop her. Still, she didn’t want to test the underwhelming feeling of being shot by taking another. She turned her back to run to her fountain cover when she heard arrows flying past her ears. Sakura threw herself on the ground. She was stuck, a moving target, if she continued to run. She could see Takumi screaming at her across the yard but she shook her head at him. She’d never forgive herself if he came to cover her. She’d given him her divine protection to take out their enemies, not to run backwards to fall for her. Taking a deep breath she began to crawl, hoping on the ground she’d be harder to hit. More voices were crying out and Sakura wondered how many soldiers were coming to this courtyard. Kamui’s team was supposed to distract the barracks, she thought. Surely they’d been noticed. It’s hard to miss Pegasus Knights, a giant dragon, and a demonic fox. Her heart panged even thinking that word. Fox. She knew he was no stranger to a fight but to keep herself focused she knew she had to avoid thinking of what was happening to him. She continued her determined crawl when feet running toward her and made her arms shake. She felt the arrow in her arm now, stinging like venom.

“Hey there, petal. Stay down okay? I’ve got this.”  
  
“Nishiki? Is that you? How did you get here so fast?” Sakura’s arm continued to sting but she’d stopped shaking.  
  
“I knew I had to find you. These chumps have nothing on me and your bro. Just let me get to work.” Sakura could hear a quaver in Nishiki’s voice. Nishiki arched his back and turned to use his large animal form to block Sakura from the volley of arrows. Balls of dark fire had formed around his body and began to absorb the enemy arrows. He felt Sakura’s hand grasp the tip of one of his tails. She whispered something he couldn’t hear and he saw a small blossom of light fall on his nose and felt reassuring warmth spread through his chest. “Petal,” Nishiki turned to the side so she could hear him. "When I'm done with these pushovers, we should get married. The sooner the better I think, while it's still spring. What do you think?"  
  
"Yes, under the cherry blossoms." Sakura's arm throbbed but she smiled and felt a happy tear fall down her cheek.

\---

“Absolutely not! I forbid it!”

“Takumi!” A chorus of voices cut in to silence the surly archer. Kamui frowned and glared across the table. “Last time I checked, brother, you were not the king, nor the commander of this base, and, importantly, _no one asked you_.”

“She’s a baby! And she’s a princess! This… this can’t be proper.” Takumi frowned as well and stood up from the table, scraping his chair on the wooden floor of the dining hall. He folded his arms and turned away from Kamui’s increasingly poisonous glare. The hall was filled with the loud chatter of the army in the afterglow of their victory at the fort. Engrossed in their own laughter and conversations, no one in the hall except the royal occupants of their corner table were giving Takumi any attention.

“Proper for what exactly?” Hinoka rolled her eyes. “She’s the same age as mom when she married, and Nishiki’s the leader of a powerful clan. No one else in Hoshido history could claim to be so closely allied to the Kitsune. That’s a huge boon for Ryouma’s reign, and the resistance against Nohr.”

“Oh, so political strategy is why you’re letting this man take our baby sister?”

“There’s only one baby here, little brother, and it’s not Sakura!”

“That’s rich! I’m the only one seeing sense here. Talking about weddings in the middle of a war is frivolous, it’s asinine, it’s-“

Aqua loudly cleared her throat. “Takumi, you can argue however you’d like, but I rather think you’re a man trying to scream at the sun to stop it from rising." Hinoka, Takumi, and Kamui all stopped to stare at Aqua. She raised her eyebrows and with a delicate motion of her arm, gestured across the hall. At their own table, Nishiki was currently feeding berries to Sakura while both of them were giggling.

Takumi sat back in his chair, slumped forward with his head in his hands, and groaned. “So when’s the stupid wedding?”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something for my favorite Fire Emblem ship. They're too cute, too pure, and need way more fandom love. I can't help but imagine how cute their courtship and subsequent wedding would have to be, and given how many S ranks have formed in the heat of battle, someone had to propose on the battlefield!  
> I have a few more pieces for this story in mind, nothing big, but it'll be a bit before I can sit down to make them happen. Thanks for reading!


End file.
